10 Experiences that Shaped Me (9 - Seven Continants)

09) Seven Continents - We traveled a bit prior to landing in Wyoming (where I grew up). I was born in upstate New York and while I was still pre-school age we moved to Saudi Arabia. I returned from Arabia and ended up in Wyoming. Coming out of college I decided I would set a goal to visit every state except North Dakota. The way I saw it, there are plenty of people who visit every state but how many pick one state to never set foot in - and let's face it, if you're going to skip one it has to be North Dakota.

Michelle and I celebrated our 49th and final state around the time of our 20th anniversary when we spent a long weekend at a bed-and-breakfast in West Virginia. Once you knock off all the states, what's a logical next goal?

That would explain "Why" seven continents but it doesn't share how my travels have shaped my life. Here's the life changing take away from my world travels: People everywhere care about the same things we do. They care about getting ahead. They want to have enough to eat, a good place to sleep, and a better life for their children than they have for themselves. They want peace and happiness. They want quality time with their families. I've spent hours talking to folks from Iran and I understand that they are good people. I adore the Chinese, Arabs, Indians and Hispanics. Here in the US we have so many inaccurate attitudes about folks over seas and I wish everyone could hang out with people from Pakistan, Argentina, and Saudi Arabia like I have. I can still disagree with their politics but once you meet the people you criticism gets a bit softer.

The other life changing take away is I have a perspective on how good we have it here. You can't properly appreciate the fact that you are more wealthy than over 99% of the folks alive until you've visited the other countries. I'm not saying we are happier, in my experience we really aren't in the top 30% of happy but we're crazy rich.

Last year when gas got up around $3 per gallon I saw the blessing travel has been in her life. Everyone around us was angry about the prices and what they had to do without and she shrugged and said

"Emily rides a bus 90 minutes each way to work every day. There are so many people on the bus that she never gets to sit down - I'm not sure I've earned the right to complain about the price of gas"

That's the kind of thing traveling the world does for you. Here's a few pictures from places we've been...

North America - I'm not going to spend much time here because if you're reading this you probably a bit familiar with this one already so instead I'll share the picture I chose for this continent.

I flew Shane to Detroit for the last game in Tiger Stadium. The week after this picture was taken they began to tear the stadium (one of the oldest in the country down)

South America - This is a picture of my wife and I at the base of Corcovado (a fairly well known statue in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil). Two things really impressed me about Brazil - first, it wasn't like Mexico or Central America. It was much more like Europe. Second - they have crazy lots of food down there and it's all really nicely priced.
Rio has edged out San Francisco as my favorite city in the world. The people are wonderful and they love to play (kind of like the folks in Denver never seem to figure out that they are getting older). We're flying back down there for a vacation next week (my Son and his wife are meeting me in Sao Paulo).

Asia

Here's a picture of my daughter Mandy and I on the great wall of China. I have very strong feelings about the Asian people (if one can stereotype all those countries into one group). Foremost is that they are hard working folks but they haven't become so self centered as we have in the USA. Next, they are much more respectful than folks in most other places. As far as China goes - the biggest thing from there is that if you live here and travel there - you get to be a rock star. I always say that everyone who goes to China is a rock star. There just aren't that many Caucasian folks in China and when they see one they are quite interested. I bet 150 people took out picture the month that Mandy and I were playing there

Africa - It's easy to underestimate Africa. The northern part is north like Washington DC is north. The southern part is so close to the South Pole that they have penguins there. The culture of the world has been influenced and changed by folks from that continent (I visited the Great Library and churches started by the apostle Luke when I was there)

...and for those of you who were wondering - riding a camel is MUCH WORSE than being horse back (they are really lumpy in the middle).

Europe - It was hard to choose a picture to represent Europe. Mandy took one of me at the finish line for the Tour De France that I liked, there are some heart wrenching photos I brought back from concentration camps in Belgium, some really nice canal pictures from Amsterdam and many of my favorites from the castle that overlooks Heidelberg Germany.


I finally chose this one for two reasons. First - there is stuff people might recognize from that big island that's just off the coast but most importantly because I got this pretty girl to stand besides me (and who wouldn't want people to see you in a picture with a specimen as fine as that!).

Australia - I have this really cool picture of me laying under a tree besides a kangaroo that is taller than I am (longer might be a better word choice - we were laying down so who's tall?) but I chose this one by the Opera house in Sydney.

I really didn't spend much time in Sydney but I was in Adelaide for nearly a month and I must say they have some amazing folks living down there. I didn't meet anyone that I wouldn't want to spend time with while I was there.

Antarctica - No pictures from here (yet). This is number seven and I'm currently saving up for the trip. The plan is for Mandy and I go go down there summer after next (January or February of 2011) and spend a couple of weeks freezing our little hoovies to the quick.